How to play Gates of Olympus: a step-by-step guide

What to know before your first spin

The slot asks for no decisions during a spin. There is nothing to choose, nothing to press and no way to influence which symbols land. Everything that depends on the player happens before the button is pressed: the size of the bet, whether Ante Bet is on, the choice between normal play and buying the bonus, and the pace.

Hence the first and most important principle. Being good at Gates of Olympus means managing money and time well; it has nothing to do with knowing a secret trick. All the step-by-step instructions below help you understand what exactly you are paying for with each press.

The game screen: what is where

• The 6×5 grid fills the centre of the screen. It holds thirty symbols, and all of them take part in the count.
• Zeus stands to the right of the reels. His gesture accompanies the arrival of multipliers.
• The spin button is at the bottom right, with the “+” and “−” bet buttons beside it.
• Autoplay opens with a separate button near the spin button.
• The “i” button opens the rules and paytable. The exact RTP percentage is stated there too.
• Balance and bet are shown in the bottom line of the screen.
• Ante Bet and the bonus buy sit on a panel beside the grid. Some operators do not offer these buttons.

Step 1. Choosing the bet

A bet in Pragmatic Play slots is made up of two settings: the coin value and the bet level. The game multiplies them by each other and by a base number of coins, and shows the result in the total bet field. You do not have to follow that arithmetic. It is enough to press “+” and “−” and watch the final amount deducted per spin.

It matters far more to choose the size of the bet sensibly. A handy rule is this: the bet should not exceed one two-hundredth of the amount set aside for play. If you are prepared to spend 500,000 soums, a reasonable bet is about 2,500. With high volatility that leaves room for a long run without wins. A bet of one twentieth of the budget, by contrast, all but guarantees the money will run out before the slot has shown anything interesting.

Step 2. Spinning and reading the result

Press the spin button. The reels stop and the game itself highlights the winning symbols. It is easy to check: count how many matching icons are on the grid. If there are eight or more, there is a payout.

Take a bet of 5,000 soums. Ten rings are on the grid. Ten or eleven rings pay 5 bets, which is 25,000 soums. The same grid holds nine green gems, which pay 0.4 of a bet, or 2,000 soums. The two payouts are added together, so after the first count the win for the spin is 27,000 soums. Note that two different symbols can win at once if each has reached at least eight.

Step 3. Tumbles

After the count the rings and green gems disappear. The symbols above them drop into the empty places and new ones fall in from the top. The game counts again, this time on the refreshed grid.

Suppose the grid now holds eight red gems. They pay one bet, 5,000 soums, and the win for the spin rises to 32,000. The red gems vanish, the grid refreshes again, and this time nothing forms. The spin is over. You paid 5,000 once and received three payouts across two tumbles. There is no telling in advance how many tumbles there will be: most often none, occasionally four or five in a row.

Paytable

Payouts are given in bets. To get the amount, multiply the value by your bet.

The Scatter pays separately: four symbols bring 3 bets, five bring 5 bets and six bring 100 at once. The values are given as a guide from public sources. The “i” button always shows the exact table for your version of the game.

There is a pattern worth noticing. Moving from the first tier to the second raises the payout two to four times, and at the third tier it grows more sharply still, especially for the gems. Twelve low symbols can be worth as much as eight high ones.

Step 4. Multipliers

At any point in a spin an orb with a number can land on the grid. It stays in place until the tumbles end. When no new combinations form, the game adds up the numbers on all the orbs and multiplies the total win by the result.

Go back to the example where 32,000 soums had built up. Suppose orbs of 2× and 6× landed during the tumbles. Together that is 8×, and the spin ends at 256,000 soums instead of 32,000. Had there been no combinations at all, the same two orbs would not have brought a single soum.

Step 5. Free spins

The round starts when four or more Scatter symbols are on the grid at once. First the payout for the scatters themselves is awarded, then 15 free spins begin at the bet on which the bonus landed.

There is nothing to play in the bonus; it runs by itself. The thing to watch is the total multiplier counter: every orb that lands on a winning spin goes into it, and the counter applies until the round ends. Three scatters during the bonus add five more spins. When the spins run out, the game shows the final amount and returns you to the base game.

Ante Bet and the bonus buy: when to use them

Ante Bet raises the cost of a spin by a quarter. At a bet of 5,000 soums you pay 6,250, while payouts are still calculated from 5,000. In return there are more scatters on the reels and free spins land about twice as often. The option makes sense if the bonus round is what interests you and you accept that the balance will go faster.

The bonus buy costs 100 bets, which is 500,000 soums at a bet of 5,000, and starts the round at once. It is the fastest way to spend money in the slot: one press equals a hundred ordinary spins. The round is no better for it. It may return three hundred bets or fifteen. If you want to see how buying behaves, do it in the demo, where a mistake costs nothing.

Autoplay and turbo

Autoplay runs a set number of spins without you. Before starting you can set stop conditions, such as a loss limit, and you should always use them. Turbo mode shortens the animation so that a spin takes about a second.

Neither setting affects the result. They affect only the speed. At a normal pace you get about six hundred spins an hour; with turbo and autoplay it can be twice that. The amount passing through the slot in the same time doubles accordingly. We worked out what an hour of play costs on the page about RTP and the maths.

Five beginners' mistakes

1. Too large a bet. With high volatility the reserve should be at least two hundred bets. With less, play often ends within minutes.
2. Chasing losses. Raising the bet after a loss does not bring the money back faster; it only speeds up the spending. The slot does not know how much you have lost.
3. Believing in a “warm-up”. A long run without a bonus does not mean one is close. The chance of it landing is the same on every spin.
4. Buying the bonus with your last money. A round bought for a hundred bets can return ten. Buying it with what is left of the balance means accepting an almost certain end to the session.
5. Playing without checking the RTP. A minute spent on the “i” button shows the terms you are playing on at a given operator.

A short glossary